Identity Theft News

Identity theft concerns force Iowa to pull SSNs from website

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Iowa Secretary of State Michael Mauro removed records containing Social Security numbers (SSN) of more than 2,000 business executives on Friday, after he was alerted by the Des Moines Register that they were viewable on a public website, the newspaper reported.

Identity theft concerns last year forced Iowa to spend $2.4 million to redact SSN from public records available on the website IowaLandRecords.org, including those of the state's governor and Mauro, according to the Register.

Criminals can use SSN for identity theft and fraud, by obtaining credit cards under another person's name, for example.

Mauro said the SSN posted on the secretary of state's website were on records submitted by businesses before rampant fraud and identity theft using SSN became a widespread concern.

Iowa legislators said Friday they would conduct a review of records on state websites, the Register reported.

Other states have stepped up efforts to protect the public from identity theft. Beginning in 2010, Massachusetts will require all SSN, bank account numbers and credit card numbers to be encrypted when transmitted on public networks or on portable devices like laptops, PDAs and flash drives.
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